


The Key

by mm8



Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Family, Friendship, Inspired by Buffy The Vampire Slayer, M/M, Magic, Religion, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Spells & Enchantments, The Key, Work In Progress, aim to update this at least once a month, if i haven't then nudge me, now with fanmix, now with playlist, stick around this is going to be awesome, you want to read this
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-08-06
Updated: 2014-08-06
Packaged: 2018-02-12 00:06:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,925
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2088093
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mm8/pseuds/mm8
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Smaug, the great calamity has awoken and he wants one thing. The Key. </p><p> </p><p>***Pairings, Tags, & Rating will change as this continues***</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Key

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thorin has an unexpected meeting at the Prancing Pony and three ghost monks run for their lives.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now with beta! Minor changes so if you read the chapter before you don't have to re-read it unless you want to. 
> 
> Thanks to vix-spes for the beta.

Monk: The key is energy. It's a portal. It opens the door...  
Buffy: The Dagon Sphere?  
Monk: No. For centuries it had no form at all. My brethren, it's only keepers, then... the abomination found us. We had to hide the key. Gave it form. Molded it flesh. Made it human. And sent it to you.  
-No Place Like Home, BTVS

___

The three ghosts were running for their lives. 

The last thousand years or so had been relatively peaceful all things considered. It had been a lazy job really. They had been doing it for as long as they could remember. Alviss could barely remember being corporeal at all. If he thought really hard, it might have been when Nain I was born. Maybe. Or was it around the time of Nain I's grandfather? It was so hard to tell. His fellow keepers were better at telling time than him. It always seemed ironic to him since Nabbi had spent most of that time sleeping the days away and Hornbori meditated. Alviss, on the other hand, had decided not to waste eternity. He preferred to wander about looking for secret passages and mapping them out. He also made it his personal mission to read every book in the great library… or what remained of it. 

None of that seemed too important now.

The great calamity had awoken. 

Oh, it had happened before. His eyes would flutter open briefly, some steam would come out of his large nostrils and he'd roll over and fall back to sleep for another ten years. 

Except this time Nabbi had been standing right in front of him, picking through the piles of treasure as he woke. 

"How was I supposed to know he'd wake up?" 

Alviss turned a sharp corner, his gaze burned into Nabbi. "Why were you there in the first place?!" He nearly tripped over some of the corpses of his dwarven brothers, and was quite happy he had no sense of smell. The scrolls he was holding almost fell from his grasp. 

" _Atkât_!" Hornbori ordered as they shut the doors behind them. " _Mahal_ , can you two quit your lover's quarrel? We do not have much time!"

The vibrations of the thunderous booms of the monster's footsteps echoed down each corridor as the great beast followed them. More rubble fell from the cavern ceiling as he passed. 

He shot Nabbi a horrid look. "I can't see a better time than this! I would really like to know the reason why I am about to die _permanently_!"

Nabbi was opening his mouth, forming the first syllable as Hornbori smacked his upside his head with his great palm. "Shut it! We don't. Have. Time." The older dwarf grasped both of them by their necks and heaved them off the floor. "Our lives are not important. We must protect the key! Do you two idiots understand?"

Being thousands of years old, Alviss tended to forget things. Like what did bleu cheese taste like? What had been his favorite shade of purple? It was quite annoying and his memory often came back to him in the most inconvenient of times. Now his mind decided to supply him with the memory, that in life, Hornbori had been one hell of a warrior. The strongest in the King's (whoever that had been) army. Too bad a crippling blow to his shin and a divine vision had turned Hornbori to the brotherhood. 

Alviss glanced sideways to his old lover, who wasn't paying him a bit of mind since he was white a sheet and being strangled by an ex-soldier. Nabbi nodded weakly, so Alviss figured it was a good time for him to acknowledge his fellow keeper as well. He made a strangled noise in the back of his throat and Hornbori promptly let them go.

"Good," the old man said. "Let's do it now."

The trio gathered at the circle they had prepared over a century ago. Nabbi lit the candles, Hornbori began the chanting and Alviss unfurled the ancient texts. Nabbi poured the dripping wax from the candles onto the dry parchment, turning it an odd shade of green as Hornbori continued to chant. Ancient letters began to appear and fade as the old dwarf recited. Alviss took a moment to glance up at Nabbi as they hummed along in a steady low rhythm. His gaze met Nabbi's and he could feel his heart flutter as it did the first time he met his lover all of those years ago, when they were barely of age. 

The doors that barred the great calamity's entrance began to give and there was steam bellowing from the crevices. Alviss shuttered. 

"Concentrate!" Hornbori shouted at him.

He was right of course.

They only had one chance to get this right.

~~~~~&&~~~~~

Thorin Oakenshield had every right to be antsy. He'd been away from his home in Ered Luin for a few months due to a false lead that his father had been spotted in Dunland. A cursed and practically uninhabitable land. It hadn't struck Thorin as too odd that perhaps his father was wandering around. Yet after two months of travelling just to get to Dunland, once he arrived he was dismayed to find barely any dwarves or stoors to even ask. The ones he did encounter after weeks of searching were skittish or agitated. The hobbits wanted nothing to do with him. The few dwarves he was able to speak with gave an array of answers from thinking he was actually his father alive and well or expressed surprise that the line of Durin and the other dwarves from Erebor had survived the trek to a new home at all. Thorin gritted his teeth and almost punched an elderly lady at that. None had seen a strange dwarf besides their small community except for Thorin. And they were more than happy to see him leave. Months wasted and he had nothing to show for it.

The bread at the Prancing Pony tasted better than anything in he'd had in a very long time. He was absolute rubbish at cooking. A home cooked meal, even at an inn, was a welcomed change.

He tensed as he noticed two men heading in the direction of his table. They walked with purpose, their fiery gaze on him. He ground his teeth together bitterly. Thorin twisted his hand around the hilt of his sword and makes stand. If these bastards want a fight then he will give them one to remember. 

"Mind if I join you?"

Thorin was quite startled to see _Tharkûn_ sitting before him. As if meeting up for dinner was a weekly thing. He gaped, open mouthed as _Tharkûn_ told the barmaid his order. The old wizard looked like he hadn't aged a day. The last time Thorin had seen the staff-man he'd been only a boy. _Tharkûn_ had come to Erebor to celebrate the birth of his brother. He had talked at great lengths with his parents and had gifted him and his baby brother toys. Thorin had rather liked the funny wizard. But he supposed any dwarfling could say that about someone who gave them toys and made silly faces. Yet here the man was in the flesh. Thorin knew _Tharkûn_ was ageless but _Mahal_.

"Well, isn't this rude of me? I should introduce myself. I'm Gandalf the Grey." The wizard smiled politely and had a pleasant air about him.

"I know who you are," Thorin spat. He noted that the two men had retreated back to the bar, backs to their table. Ha. Cowards.

"Isn't this a coincidence? What brings Thorin Oakenshield to Bree?" Gandalf asked, leaning on his elbows. 

"I received word that my Father had been seen wondering wild near Dunland." Thorin's frown deepened and he clenched his fist around his mug. "I went looking and found no sign of him."

Gandalf's voice was gentle, that of one who was consulting an injured child. "Thorin, it's been a long time since anything but rumor was heard of Thrain."

Thorin growled and banged his fist on the table. "He was still lives, I am sure of it."

At that exact moment, the barmaid slid up beside them and placed _Tharkûn_ 's plate in front of the wizard. _Tharkûn_ smiled and thanked the hobbit. Thorin was left feeling shameful of his outburst. He averted his eyes from the hobbit lass as he nibbled on his bread. 

"I'm sorry about your family, Thorin. Your grandfather, father and especially your younger brother. I wish I could have done more to help."

Thorin scoffed. He didn't want to hear any half-assed apologies from the wizard. He'd heard them all from his own kind. "My father came to see you before he went missing. What did you say to him?"

Suddenly the man was full of life. He sat straightened his posture and swung his arms in the air as he spoke. "I urged him to march upon Erebor. Destroy the dragon and take back the Lonely Mountain, and I would say the same to you. Take back your homeland!" Gandalf settled down in his chair, taking a sip of his ale. "The Lonely Mountain troubles me, Thorin. Smaug has had long enough, sooner or later darker minds will turn towards Erebor. I ran into some unsavory characters whilst traveling along the Greenway. They mistook me for a vagabond." His voice dripped with detest at the word.

Thorin couldn't help but laugh a little. He imagined some bandits thinking they had found a harmless old man as an easy prey. Instead they find _Tharkûn_. "I imagine they regretted that."

The wizard reached instead of his grey cloak and took out a scroll. He slid it across the table. "One of them was carrying a message."

Thorin glanced down at the parchment. The words on the scroll meant nothing to him. They seemed angry and swirled together. He looked up at the wizard in confusion. "I cannot read this. It's not in any language I know."

"It's Black Speech," Gandalf explained. "It's a promise of payment. For your head. And your families. Someone wants you dead."

"Dis? My nephews?" his voice broke. _Mahal_ , who would order a price on all of their heads? What had his nephews ever done to deserve that? 

Gandalf frowned gravely. "Yes, this is bigger than you, Thorin. Your family's lives depend on it." Once again, the staff-man became very uplifting. "You can wait no longer. You're the heir to the throne of Durin. Unite the armies of the dwarves, together you have the might and the power to retake Erebor! Summon a meeting of the seven dwarf families, demand they stand by their oath!"

He didn't mean to, but he grew so furious. Thorin's face flushed and he ground his teeth together. Why didn't _Tharkûn_ understand? Did he think he was content in Ered Luin? Being a leader of homeless race? "The seven armies swore that oath to the one who wields the King's jewel. It's the only thing that will unite them, and in case you have forgotten, that jewel became buried under piles of gold when Smaug stole my home!"

Gandalf leaned forward so he was hunched over the table. "What if I were to help you reclaim it?"

Thorin's gaze shifted to the bar for a second and noticed that the men from earlier had left. He leant in as well. "This is no chance meeting is it, Gandalf?"

The old man gave him a wryly smile. "No, no it isn't."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \+ Alviss, Nabbi and Hornbori's names all come from the Poetic Edda which is the source which Tolkien used for his names as well.  
> \+ Atkât – Silence  
> \+ Mahal – God, Maker  
> \+ As far as I know, Tolkien never went into huge detail about the religion of the dwarves. I mean they say Aule and Mahal and think they will go to the halls of waiting after dying so there must be some sort of religion going on. So the monks are really part of my fanfic plus Buffyverse. If you are interested in a fic that really explores dwarven religion, I suggest you read [Lofn](http://archiveofourown.org/series/94592%20).  
> \+ Dunland is located at the base of the Misty Mountains. Thorin's people originally relocated to Dunland after Smuag attacked. But (since it was such a shithole) they kept moving and eventually settled in Ered Luin.  
> \+ Stoors are a type of hobbit that have broad shoulders, can grow facial hair, and can even swim. Apparently some made their home in Dunland.  
> \+ Tharkûn – the name the dwarves call Gandalf.

**Author's Note:**

> Follow me on tumblr-[mm8fic](http://mm8fic.tumblr.com/)  
>  
> 
> Listen to my [playlist](http://open.spotify.com/user/meganmoffat8/playlist/0CrTEM9lEvW4LVHk0sfWeT) for the story on Spotify! I'm always adding new songs. You can suggest stuff for me to add too. I also made a [fanmix](http://mahmfic.livejournal.com/505766.html).
> 
> I am aiming to update this fic at least once a month. Nudge me if you haven't seen an update.


End file.
